AFV ISSUE 467

Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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ISSUE 467

SINCE 2001

B R I TA I N ’ S N O . 1 A F R I C A N N E W S PA P E R

£1.00

Africa’s visionary leader transforming lives

Ban ethnoreligious groups Sanusi

SEE PAGE 10

SEE PAGE 9

Police station closures a step closer SEE PAGE 14

Ireland’s African discrimination shame

By Alan Oakley

Research certain to cause parallels to be drawn in Great Britain has revealed that black Africans living in the Republic of Ireland are significantly more likely to be unemployed and face work discrimination than Irish people.

Statistics show migrants who arrived in Ireland during the recession are also at greater risk of being discriminated against than their Irish counterparts.

The study from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Equality Authority also found that in 2010, black Africans were almost seven times more likely than white Irish people to experience discrimination when looking for work, and

almost seven times more likely to be discriminated against while in work.

Individuals describing themselves as Black African suffer the highest rates of unemployment and discrimination linked to work. They recorded the highest unemployment rate at 36 per cent and were four times more likely to be out of work than white Irish.

The labour force participation was just 60 per cent for black Africans and 65 per cent for non-white Europeans in 2010, while it ranged from 72 per cent to 80 per cent for white Europeans and Asians, many of whom arrived on student visas and could legally work part-time.

Turn to page 2

Rotimi Adebari (centre) made history as Ireland’s first Black mayor in 2007, despite arriving as an asylum seeker seven years earlier

Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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Have You Got News For Us Newsdesk: 020 7274 3933

Email: africanvoicenews@gmail.com

UKBA contacting refused migrants

In October 2012, Capita Business Services was awarded a contract with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to provide a range of contact management and caseworking services.

Capita is working on cases in the migrant refusal pool (MRP) which consists of records of people who have applied to remain in the UK but been refused or had their leave curtailed.

Capita will be contacting these applicants to establish their current circumstances and, where appropriate, inform them of the requirement to leave the UK. Capita will typically be contacting foreign nationals who have entered the UK on valid visas and have subsequently been refused an extension of leave to remain, but evidence of their departure has not been confirmed.

Since October, Capita has been checking cases against the agency’s records to identify which individuals should be contacted. Capita will use various contact methods to establish an individual’s circumstances, including text message, letter, email and telephone.

Capita is contacting thousands of migrants every week, and while the vast majority have been identified correctly, in a small number of cases this might include people who are now legally in the UK. Their circumstances may have changed or updates on their case may not have fed through in time to prevent Capita’s contact.

The UKBA will continue to work closely with Capita to ensure the information they are using is as accurate as possible. If they receive evidence to show that an individual has valid leave or has left the UK they will update their records accordingly.

Publisher and Editor-In-Chief Mike Abiola Editorial Board Adviser Dr Ola Ogunyemi News Editor Emmanuel Urhiofe Sub Editor Alan Oakley Sports Editor Abiodun Teriba Assist. Sports Editor Olubunmi Omoogun Arts Editor Golda John Columnists Michael Adekoya Rasheed Ogunlaru Photo Journalist Isaac Adegbite Graphic Designer Alvin Brown Legal Adviser Godwin Okri London Office: Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP

Tel: 020 7274 3933

Email: africanvoicenews@gmail.com

African Voice is published by African Voice UK.

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News

Ireland’s African discrimination shame Continued from front page

Equality Authority chief executive Renee Dempsey said immigrants fare less well than Irish people in the labour market, adding: “Clearly there needs to be a renewed focus on promoting equality for immigrants and for minority ethnic groups in the labour market and throughout society.”

The results are based on a new analysis of Ireland’s Central Statistics Office’s 2010 Quarterly National Household Survey Equality Module. Key findings from the Ethnicity and Nationality in the Irish Labour Market study include: - Black Africans recorded the highest unemployment rate being four times more likely to be unemployed than white Irish individuals; - White people from the old EU member states recorded the lowest unemployment rate at 9 per cent, followed by Asians at 12 per cent; - Black Africans and ethnic minority EU individuals were less likely to have jobs than Asians and white people from the EU; - Black Africans, Asians, Ethnic minority EU and white people from the UK and 12 EU new (since 2004) member states were less likely than white Irish nationals to work in professional and managerial occupations; - Migrants who arrived in Ireland during the recession were more likely to suffer discrimination job hunting than those who arrived during the boom; - All national ethnic groups, apart from white

UK and white EU-13 individuals, reported substantially higher rates of discrimination in the workplace than white Irish; - People in the 55-59 age group were more likely to report discrimination when looking for work in 2010 compared with 2004.

The ESRI branded this “significant”. They were also more than twice as likely to suffer discrimination while looking for work compared with those aged between 20 and 24.

The ESRI suggested that part of the severe disadvantages suffered by black Africans could be due to the fact that many are refugees.

“People who enter the country as asylum seekers spend a considerable period of time excluded from the labour market and in many respects excluded from participation in Irish society,” the report said.

Fraud arrests at Surrey care provider UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers have arrested 6 people as part of an investigation into suspected assistance of illegal workers and fraud at a care company based in Sutton, Surrey.

The operation at Carefirst 24 was carried out by the UKBA’s criminal and financial investigation team with assistance from the Metropolitan Police Service.

Officers entered the company’s headquarters in Upper Mulgrave Road at around 10:30 on Tuesday 15 January where they arrested 4 people on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to assist foreign nationals. The four included two British women aged 48 and 52, a 52-year-old British man and a 34-year-old Mauritian man.

Officers also arrested a Filipino man and woman on suspicion of the same offences on Monday 14 January at a separate south London address. All those arrested have been bailed until various dates in April.

Carefirst 24 provides contract care, private care and care facilities to elderly people across Sutton and Surrey. If you or a relative are receiving care from Carefirst 24, please contact either Lynn Stephens at Surrey County Council on 07975 590302 or the Brokerage Team at the London Borough of Sutton on 020 8770 4554 urgently to seek advice so replacement care can be provided

Suspects were bailed at Sutton police station

immediately.

Rachel Bennett, UK Border Agency said: “This was a successful operation. With the help of partners like the Metropolitan Police Service and Sutton Borough Council, we are determined to do whatever is necessary to investigate alleged abuses of our immigration system.”

Sarah Rees, detective inspector, Sutton CID said: “This morning’s operation was a good example of the Met Police in Sutton and the UK Border Agency working closely

together to protect elderly and vulnerable people and to keep them safe.

“The operation went to plan and passed without incident thanks to co-operation of all those involved.”

The UKBA’s south London criminal and financial investigation team is a specialist unit of police officers seconded from the Metropolitan Police working alongside warranted officers to investigate organised immigration crime.

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Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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Opinion

Progress Report On HIV/AIDS

T

he Promise of an improving state of affairs in managing the human immunodeficiency virus/ acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in Nigeria is cheering. The report, coming from both government and private medical sources, is notable against the backdrop of the absence of a cure for the dreaded disease. But the hope and promise ignited by the development has been somewhat dampened by the subsisting record of Nigeria as the country with the second highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. To remove this poor global rating, and thereby concretise the measurable achievement so far recorded, is the real challenge facing all stakeholders in the country.

At the World AIDS Day commemorated the other day with the theme: “Resourcing the HIV Response to Achieve Zero AIDS-related Deaths”, President Goodluck Jonathan raised the hopes of Nigerians when he declared that “Nigeria has made steady progress in combating HIV/AIDS since the Abuja Declaration in 2001;” and that government has the political will and commitment to sustain the progress made so far.

In furtherance of this development, President Jonathan claimed that government increased HIV funding from N2.5 billion in 2002 to over N5 billion in 2011, and also last year signed a partnership framework with the United States Government, that will see government spending on HIV increase from the current 25 per cent to 50 per cent in 2015.

This same optimism was echoed by the

President of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, who in a statement, listed achievements in the fight against HIV/AIDS. According to him, the HIV prevalence in Nigeria, which was 4.6 per in 2008, has declined to 4.1 per cent in 2010. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHs) receiving antiretroviral drugs, which was about 230,000 at the end of 2008, increased to 500,000; while the number of sites for providing these drugs increased from 296 at the end of 2008 to 491 at the end of 2011. In the same vein, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV has increased from seven per cent in 2008 to 32 percent in 2012 and the number of PMTCT centres increased from 533 in 2008 to 800 in 2012.

With respect to HIV counselling and test-

‘States’ of anomie

I

n 13 years of democratic rule, the culture of democracy is still far from taking firm root in Nigeria. Its tenets are breached with sickening regularity, especially in every state of the federation, indicating that serious governance was and still is never a mission for political parties, governors and state legislatures.

Expectations of a life lived in abundance and reasonable security is a mirage today in Nigeria. Healthcare delivery, welfare of citizens, infrastructure, education, employment and all indices of the greatest good for the greatest number remain mere dreams.

Interestingly, governors of all the states in Nigeria spent the last holiday season making vain speeches or mouthing platitudes that are not only meaningless but constitute cynical rehashes of their past exhortations.

An examination of states’ budgets over the past 10 years reveals so much short-changing of the people occasioned by poor implementation and recklessness in spending that suggest a collusion between the Legislatures and the Executives to enslave the people.

States’ legislatures, empowered by the Constitution to be the watchdog for the people, appear to have collapsed, brought

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to their knees by greed and self-aggrandisement. Most crudely, obsequiousness to the state governors is the norm; making it possible for bills that are atrocious in content and intention to be passed with embarrassing speed; and without the informed input of the people they were elected to serve.

Were the Houses of Assembly consistent and faithful in implementing states’ budgets for the past 13 years, positive governance would have taken root in the polity. Sadly, what applies today is no different from the spectacle of a conquered territory with the governors as emperors. This is awful and unlawful.

In the same climate of rot, the process of recall of an odious representative, justified as that could be, has never been allowed to succeed by the beneficial state governor.

Governance in the states is, therefore, exclusively left to the chicanery of the governor, his spouse and a few unelected aides.

Vanity is the rule as the destiny of the people is toyed with and their future is mortgaged.

Governors are busy bankrolling and attending thanksgivings. They are funding birthdays, funerals and self-praising books, jamborees or endorsing self-adulatory

ing (HCT), the number of testing centres has increased from 896 in 2008 to 1357 at the end of 2011. So also has the number of Nigerians that have been tested.

This seeming progress needs improvement for better result. Not only should government invest more in the management of HIV/AIDS, it should also reward the efforts of those genuinely involved in efforts to combat the scourge and its attendant social problems.

Yet, as consolatory as this statistics suggests, it is counterbalanced by reports of grey areas in the HIV/AIDS administration.

According to statistics from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, (UNAIDS), National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Nigeria has the second highest number of people living with HIV/ AIDS – 3,459,363 in the world.

Reports also claimed that no fewer than 217,148 AIDS-related deaths are recorded annually in the country while an estimated 1000 new HIV infections occur daily. New HIV cases recorded in 2012 has been estimated at 388,864.

Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) coverage still remains low with only 1,120,178 (16.9%) pregnant women counseled and tested for HIV in 2011. Compared with other sub-Saharan countries with high prevalence rates, Nigeria ranks very low in its capacity to reduce rates of new HIV infections; whereas, rates of new HIV infections have been dramatically reduced since 2001 by 73 per cent in Malawi, 71 per cent in Botswana, 68 per cent in Namibia, 58 per cent in Zambia, 50 per cent in Zimbabwe and 41 per cent in South Africa and Swaziland.

This offsetting statistics makes it impera-

tive for government to commit more investment, and encourage greater participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the management of HIV/AIDS. This is beside the basic precautionary conduct of abstinence, marital fidelity and condom use being canvassed by health rights groups.

Apart from campaigns focusing on preventive strategies to curb the disease, empowerment programmes, rather than emphasising workshops, should be geared to enabling PLWHs to become full-fledged partners in the largely donor-driven AIDS programmes. For the management of PLWHs, Public Health Centers (PHC) should be upgraded, equipped and the staffers trained to deliver comprehensive HIV services. Government should also intensify capacity-building, strengthening and coordination of civil society networks, in addition to providing individuals and organizations grants for research into areas of HIV/ AIDS that will be beneficial to the nation’s response.

Since stigmatization frustrates effective campaign against the menace of the disease, there is also need to speed up the passage of the Stigma and Discrimination Bill into law in order to address the social prejudices meted out on PLWHs. Importantly, the law should be enforced.

Beyond the slogans of ‘Getting to zero’, the fundamental message of the fight against HIV/AIDS should not be lost. It is living a dignified life with or without HIV/AIDS. Living in dignity, either in the satisfaction of a negative HIV status, or as a personal triumph over stigmatization, or maintaining a regimen of appropriate medication and healthy lifestyle, is meaningful only when it is predicated on genuine respect for the dignity of the human person.

awards by every manner of men or groups in Ghana, Dubai, and beyond at public expense. This misbehaviour embarrasses not only them but Nigerians too. They even take shamelessness to unimaginable heights by inducing performance awards that belie the reality in their states.

Another outstanding example of unacceptable vanity is a governor’s encouragement of over 300 pages of newspaper laudatory messages on his birthday. Assuming this is not public funds directly or indirectly, the sum could be tidily helpful towards infrastructure development in his state.

Yet, state officials have shown little or no commitment to delivering value and results.

With only a few exceptions, Nigerian public officials use lengthy vehicular convoy, which, to their warped minds, is a measure of their importance and, thereafter, a license to violence and assault on other citizens.

This crude show of power and intimidation should have no place in a service-oriented government.

Unlike many who had served the nation before them, and exhibited deep respect for their electors, the conduct of current office

holders insults the faith and trust invested in leaders and diminishes the offices into which they were elected. Can they not see the impoverishment of the citizens, the alarming unemployment and crime rate? Certainly, the culture of impunity at the state level is indefensible.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum, whether as a trade union, administrative body, advocacy or enlightened self-interest group, can serve a better purpose for the good of Nigerians than the alarming pursuit of the political interest of sitting governors. It is remarkable that the self-advertised peer review of the states and the governors which the forum sets so much store of has fallen flat on its face.

As budget implementation begins in this New Year, the states’ executive branches and legislatures should ascend to a better level of accountability and governance.

The people, having suffered unduly from the pilfering of their resources, are losing faith. The only way to regain the people’s trust is for governors and legislators to redeem their pledge of service.

Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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News

A mayor fate made S

By Peter Olorunnisomo

he was a child during the Nigerian civil war. The symptoms of such a war, so cruel, quickly matured a young girl to adolescent occupations of responsibility yet schooling went on simultaneously. There wasn’t room for any education about what was coming to her. It was simply a need that barked out its orders compelling anyone older to become a guide. There was no opportunity to register any sentiment for the young children caught in it. Instead, in the thick of the war, roles were re-defined, and everyone had a duty – it didn’t matter what it was or your age. You fulfilled it to ensure a longer survival if the bullets didn’t catch up quickly.

For little Kate, it was to sell roasted groundnuts, bean cakes or whatever else was expedient to sell as food; take them to local Afo or Eke market or even walk distances over 6 hours to make sales and buy other produce e.g. salt, fish, and vegetables, for sale back home with the war clouds overcast. Her dad and immediate brother went to rented farms and stayed away for weeks. This was the early training that life gave the Councillor Kate Anolue, the Mayor of Enfield.

The soft spoken, ever –smiling, ebonyhued, Nurse and Solicitor turned politician in the stables of the Labour Party, UK sitting very simply in the ambience of the brown in the spacious office, cut quite a humble picture of one used to serving and who understands the power that there is in connect-

ing to people. She had played ‘Lady Nightingale’, though that was not the profession that she had ambition for, but which was to honour her father’s wish; and yet realized the need to fulfill the potential her heart was bent on – law. Either way, both were to serve people: whether people from her heritage or people from her constituency and, indeed, the United Kingdom.

Her sojourn to the United kingdom was necessitated by the romantic reality of marriage. Her matrimonial expectations were soon blessed with children before ‘daylight became night’ in October, 1985 – the time she lost her husband. From that time, she went through a myriad of experiences which should have brought her down but rather taught her how to climb up. It was difficult raising the children of four by herself without any support. With her will sustained by the biblical notion that ‘God doesn’t give you a cross that you cannot carry’, she sought help from the Council and a childminder. Thus she was able to fulfill all conditions to become a midwife.

With the drudgery of work and maternal care, she was able to be there constantly for every child and still prosecute a study course in law in second class grade. While the legal profession did not yield a ready tool to changing career, she used it effectively as a Union Representative and Steward for the College of Nurses. This prompted a political inclination resulting in her joining

the Labour Party in 1997 where she toiled tirelessly attending meetings, conventions, committee activities, etc, which took a toll on her relationships, and gradually became appointed/elected for more party duties and responsibilities in and out of party which included Chair, Labour-in-Council (Housing), Woman Officer in Labour, Health Scrutiny, and Scrutiny member in different portfolio, School Governor of Wilbury and Raynham Primary Schools, Trustee of Henlon Youth Centre, and is very active at St. Edmunds Catholic Church to mention a few. By 2010, she had won her third election as a Councillor and she is still in office.

Her path towards accomplishments was

clearly noted not only by the Labour Party and the citizenry in the UK but also her homestead where she was bestowed with a chieftaincy office with the title of ‘Adajelumba-tolu-ugo’ meaning ‘Our daughter that went to a foreign land and brought us glory”.

It is, however, interesting to note that this ‘daughter of Umudala’ in Nanka (a serene settlement of hills marking out seven villages) that also pronounces a number of rustic qualities as with Enfield, has both been her home, home and away, where she has held titular offices in recognition of her industrious and humanitarian nature.

Let the African sun shine healthily in your kitchen

W

Tropical Sun Foods and ‘Meet the Adebanjos’ star team up to promote healthy African cooking

hen it comes to African cooking, leading African food specialist, Tropical Sun, values the importance of health and nutrition just as much as it does quality and authenticity of produce.

The brand is so serious, that it’s (literally) putting its pounded yam where its mouth is by teaming up with Meet the Adebanjos star, Yetunde Oduwole to advocate healthy African cooking in a new TVcampaign called, Tropical Sun’s African Kitchen, to be aired across a number of TV channels this December.

There’s no denying that African cuisine is delicious, but sometimes the way it’s cooked can be perceived as unhealthy.

Within the West African community in the UK, an increasing number of people are affected by chronic health conditions including diabetes, obesity, prostate cancer and hypertension. The ‘African Kitchen’ TV campaign, sponsored by Tropical Sun, specialist ingredients brands Africa’s Finest and African Sun, is hosted by Yetunde Oduwole (Gladys of award-winning sitcom comedy, Meet the Adebanjos) and features

three African-food lovers demonstrating the simplicity of cooking homemade, mouthwatering dishesincluding Peanut Soup, Egusi Soup with Pounded Yam and Jollof Rice with Plantain.

Yetunde said of the campaign: “I’m honoured to be part this community-wide project.

As an actor, and having recently become a mother myself, what I eat and provide for my family is more important now than ever. African dishes generally consist of a lot of carbohydrates and lots of oil, and so if we can make the smallest modifications to the way we cook and eat, it can radically improve our health, so that we not only look and feel better, but continue to enjoy great tasting food.”

Yetunde and guests will be cooking using the finest ingredients, including Tropical Sun’s no added sugar Peanut Butter, Africa’s Finest Dried Bitter Leaves and Ground Egusi, and will be aired on Vox Africa, BEN TV, Klear TV and OHTV during the first week of December.

The Tropical Sun range of foods encompasses over 250 authentic AfroCaribbean products comprising drinks

and ingredients including seasonings & sauces, canned and dried peas & beans, and traditional flours and powders such as gari, pounded pam and cornmeal.

Tropical Sun is distributed throughout Europe by Wanis Limited, the UK’s leading distributor of Afro-Caribbean foods. Wanis Limited also distribute brands African Sun and Africa’s Finest - specialist authentic food and ingredients products for African consumers in the UK. Wanis distribute a

comprehensive range of ethnic foods from around the world including the West Indies, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa and the Far East.

As part of the campaign, Tropical Sun, Africa’s Finest and African Sun are giving away a special hamper featuring ingredients used in the show including Africa’s Finest Palm Oil, Tropical Sun Basmati Rice and a selection of seasoning.

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Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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News

Arik Air adds Kinshasa, DRC to route network Arik Air, West and Central Africa’s largest commercial carrier is expanding its regional African network with the addition of new flight services from Lagos, Nigeria to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The first commercial flight on the route took place on Wednesday, 5 December 2012 and subsequently operate twice weekly on Wednesday and Sunday. The announcement means Kinshasa has now become Arik Air’s third destination in Central Africa, following the inclusion of flights to Luanda, Angola in 2011 and Douala, Cameroon in August this year.

The new Lagos-Kinshasa service operated via Douala, Cameroon with outbound flights departing from the MurtalaMuhammed International Airport, Lagos at 11:10 am (local time) and arriving at Douala International Airport at 12:40 pm (local time). Flights will then continue onto Kinshasa, departing from Douala at 1:25 pm (local time) and arriving at N’djili International Airport, Kinshasa at 3:25 pm (local time).

The return flights left Kinshasa at 4:10 pm (local time), arriving in Douala at 6:10 pm (local time) and will thereafter leave Douala at 6:55 pm (local time), arriving in Lagos at

8:25 pm (local time).

Passengers can still take advantage of the existing thrice weekly flights between Lagos and Douala on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This service departs Lagos at 11:10 am (local time) and arrives in Douala at 12:40 (local time). The return flight departs Douala at 1:25pm (local time) and arrives in Lagos at 2:55 pm.

The Lagos to Kinshasa route will be served with a Boeing 737-700 Next Generation aircraft. The 737-700 is a two class compartment and the configuration is 12 Business Class seats and 112 Economy Class. Business Class passengers will enjoy a 44” seat pitch with cradle style seats, while Economy Class passengers will have plenty of room on the flight with a generous seat pitch of 34”.

Arik Air’s Managing Director/Executive Vice President, Mr. Chris Ndulue said of the new Lagos-Kinshasa service: “Kinshasa is our 12th African destination and this underscores the airline’s commitment to linking the African markets for proper integration of the continent. Kinshasa is the second largest city in sub-Saharan Africa and the third largest in the whole continent after Lagos and Cairo. Thus, it is strategically important

to link Lagos with Kinshasa.

“Arik Air is now firmly established as the largest airline in West and Central Africa as well as the fastest growing in Africa”.

Arik Air (www.arikair.com) is Nigeria and West Africa’s largest commercial airline, and operates mainly from two hubs at Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos and NnamdiAzikiwe International Airport Abuja.

It operates a fleet of 23 state-of-the art regional, medium haul and long haul aircraft including two Airbus A340-500 making the airline the first operator of the wide bodied

aircraft in Africa.

The airline currently serves 20 destinations across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Monrovia (Liberia),and Douala (Cameroon), Luanda (Angola), London Heathrow (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York JFK (USA).The airline operates a combined number of about 120 daily flights from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja, and has been Africa’s fastest growing airline for the last two years.

MoneyGram celebrates 20,000 agent locations in Africa

MoneyGram, a leading global money transfer company, announced that it has crossed the 20,000 agent location milestone in Africa and is opening a new office in Casablanca to serve as MoneyGram’s African hub. The news was announced at a press conference held at Kenzi Tower Hotel, Boulevard Zerktouni, in Casablanca.

The new office, located at Maarif in Casablanca, will initially house ten MoneyGram employees.

MoneyGram has been in Morocco since 1998. In June 2011, the company opened its Casablanca office dedicated to taking care of its nine agents in Morocco and those in North Africa and West Francophone Africa to provide MoneyGram products and services for customers across the region.

“Casablanca is the economic capital of Morocco and the remittance link between Europe and Africa. It’s critical to our growth in the region to have a strong physical and brand presence here,” said Herve Chomel, vice president of Africa.

“In the past 18 months, we have added 3,000 MoneyGram agent locations to our network in Africa and have grown to 20,000 throughout the continent.”

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Earlier this year, MoneyGram announced the addition of First National Bank in South Africa, an addition that doubled the company’s agent network in South Africa to 1,000 locations. Before that, MoneyGram added Ecobank in Nigeria, expanding the company’s presence in Nigeria by 600 locations.

According to Carl Scheible, executive vice president of Europe & Africa, MoneyGram, convenience is a critical component in the money transfer industry, particularly in Africa. “We are focused on increasing the number of MoneyGram locations throughout Africa to make our services as accessible and convenient to as many customers as possible.”

According to the World Bank, an estimated $38.6 billion in remittances flowed into Africa in 2010.

MoneyGram, a leading global money transfer company, enables consumers who are not fully served by traditional financial institutions to meet their financial needs. MoneyGram offers money transfer services worldwide and bill payment services in the United States and Canada through a global network of more than 293,000 agent locations—including retailers, international post offices and financial institutions—in 197 countries and territories around the world.

Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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Germany

Revamp for staff privacy laws Germany is set to introduce legislation banning employers from secretly videotaping staff following controversy sparked by supermarket chain Lidl and communications giant Deutsche Telekom covertly filming their employees.

“Secret surveillance of employees can no longer be permitted in Germany,” said Michael Frieser, an expert on the subject with the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Merkel’s coalition has promised more legal certainty over video surveillance for both employers and employees by clearing up existing grey areas. The German parliament, the Bundestag, is scheduled to vote on the legislation by the end of January.

Surveillance of any kind in private areas - such as changing rooms, sleeping areas and restrooms - would be totally banned by the new law. Neither would it be lawful to use covert video surveillance to monitor the behaviour or performance of employees, according to Gisela Piltz of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

However, the proposed legislation still permits hidden cameras in the workplace, causing some critics to say the new law does not go far enough.

The stolen train embedded into a residential apartment building

“Break rooms also used as conference rooms can still be videotaped,” criticised Gerold Reichenbach, a parliamentarian with the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD). “If you tell an employee beforehand that he or she may be video-taped, then you can still mount a hidden camera at work,” the opposition parliamentarian said, adding: “You just can no longer film secretly with it.”

A separate aspect of the legislation allows employers to gather information about current and prospective employees from social networks and credit agencies.

ately clear.

“We have only heard good things about her. We’re investigating how this could happen, and why she did what she did,” Hedenius said. He said it’s unclear how she got the keys to the train, but added that driving it

would not have proved that complicated.

“Generally speaking that’s possible even if you’re not a train driver,” he said. “You can read about it on the Internet, or observe how others do it.”

Cuba

New law eases travel for Cubans

India

Infant raped in school toilet Hundreds of people have protested in the Indian state of Goa after a sevenyear-old girl was raped in a school toilet on January 14th. The school’s headmistress has been detained on charges of negligence in Vasco town.

The rape was discovered after the victim complained of pain and was medically examined, reports the Press Trust of India news agency. The police are now looking for the suspect after making a sketch from a description given by the victim.

Parents and local residents held a protest outside the school late on Monday when

news of the rape came out. Goa police chief Kishan Kumar told journalists that an investigation into the incident was under way.

“We will not spare the accused and anyone involved in this crime,” Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said.

There were nationwide protests amid growing outrage in India after a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped and brutally tortured in a bus in Delhi last December. The student died two weeks later from her injuries and campaigners have called for tougher rape laws and reforms to the police, who critics say often fail to file charges against accused attackers.

Sweden

Joyriding cleaner wipes out homes A woman stole an empty commuter train from a depot and drove it to a suburb of Stockholm where it derailed and slammed into an apartment building, according to Swedish officials.

The woman was seriously injured in the early morning crash and was flown to a Stockholm hospital.. No one else was injured.

Police spokesman Lars Bystrom said the woman was arrested on suspicion of endangering the public.

Tomas Hedenius, a spokesman for train

operator Arriva, said the 22 year-old stole the four-car train at a depot outside Stockholm. She then drove it about a mile to the end station on the railway line, where it jumped off the tracks, careered for about 30 yards and crashed into a three-story building. Photographs from the scene showed the crumpled front car of the train buried deep into the building’s structure.

“There were three families inside the apartment building, but no one was injured - at least not physically,” Hedenius said.

The motives of the woman, who worked for a company contracted to carry out cleaning for the train operator, were not immedi-

A Cuban woman emerges clasping her previously unattainable passport

Cuba’s much-anticipated new immigration law, which reduces restrictions on leaving and entering the Caribbean island, went into effect this week.

The new law has, for the first time in 50 years, removed the requirements for an exit visa and a letter of invitation to travel abroad, making it one of the most popular reforms enacted so far. The law also extends the time Cubans can stay abroad, from 11 to 24 months, and the time Cubans residing abroad can stay in Cuba, from 30 to 90 days.

The “upgrade in immigration policy” brings Cuba closer to its goal of facilitating “legal, orderly and safe” travel and of “strengthening its relationship with its émigrés,” the official newspaper Granma said.

What the Cubans need now for travel-

ling abroad is a valid passport and a visa from the destination country.

“Anyone who has the ability to travel can do it now because there are no limitations as long as you have a passport and a visa,” said Mireya Moran, a Cuba citizen.

The government still retains the authority to restrict travel for reasons of national security or for those deemed “vital,” a measure designed to prevent a brain drain.

Countries have the right to act with the “supreme interests of society” in mind by preventing the exodus of “highly qualified professionals, scientists, technicians and athletes, considered key to the socioeconomic development of the country,” DIE deputy director Lamberto Fraga said.

Regardless, “most of the applications will be granted,” he added.

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BlackBerry Opens Second Apps Lab in South Africa Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, has announced the opening of its second BlackBerry apps lab in South Africa.

The new lab is based in Cape Town and follows on the launch of the BlackBerry apps lab at the University of Pretoria in May 2012. According to RIM, the aim of the BlackBerry apps labs is to help accelerate mobile application development in South Africa, thereby creating new economic opportunities and jobs in the mobile space, and to support the larger context and objectives of the South African Department of Communications’ eSkills Institute. The labs provide local developers, including students, start-ups, entrepreneurs and others with access to resources in development, marketing, sales and training to help them expand their ideas and business opportunities. RIM will work with developers at the Cape Town lab to create local and regionally relevant applications for BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry PlayBook, as well as for devices running the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform. The initiative is expected to help create locally relevant apps, new skills and job opportunities for graduates, and new revenue streams for developers. According to RIM, the

BlackBerry apps labs form part of an Africa developer programme that includes facilities in Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt.

$7.8 million grant to improve farming in Africa Michigan State University researchers will use a $7.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help eight African nations improve their sustainable farming methods. The grant, from the Gates Foundation Global Development Program, will be used to help guide policymaking efforts to intensify farming methods that meet agricultural needs while improving environmental quality in Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Ethiopia and Tanzania. During the next four years, the team will work with 10 African universities, institutes and government ministries to promote effective government strategies that help African farmers become more

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productive and food secure. The team also will build the capacity of national policy institutes to guide and support their own countries’ agriculture ministries and eventually accept and manage international grants.

The grant builds upon MSU’s longstanding commitment to this region and stands as a tribute to the legacy of the MSU researchers who pioneered efforts such as these. In 2008, MSU used a $4 million Gates Foundation grant to analyze the region’s agricultural marketing and trade systems to provide guidance to governments in the region on strategies to raise agricultural productivity and create more efficient, sustainable markets for small farmers.

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SINCE 2001

BR I TA A IFA R LI C A S PA N IG E RI INA’ SN NSOP. 1E C NNI GNEERWI A N PSEPRE C I A L

President Jonathan reaffirms commitment to reforms, calls for continued World Bank support President Goodluck Jonathan last Tuesday in Abuja reaffirmed his Administration’s commitment to the implementation of all reforms considered necessary for accelerated economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation in Nigeria.

Speaking at an audience with the World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Mr. Mouktar Diop, President Jonathan said that although it was not easy to undertake certain reforms in an intensely political environment, the Federal Government under his leadership will continue to evolve and implement policies that will assure sustainable development and the long-term well-being of the nation.

Acknowledging Mr. Diop’s commendation of his Administration’s stewardship of the Nigerian economy, the President said that with the continued support of the World Bank, other international institutions and investors the Federal Government will achieve an even higher growth rate for the national economy.

“We will continue to do our best. We would have had more robust growth by now but for the global economic recession. With your continued support, we will certainly achieve more,” he told Mr. Diop.

The President said that Nigeria will particu-

Mr. Mouktar Diop, World Bank’s Vice President for Africa with President Goodluck Jonathan

larly welcome more support for the World Bank for the concluding stages of its power sector reforms especially for the speedy resolution of labour issues and other matters related to the ongoing privatization of the sector.

Mr. Diop had praised ongoing reforms in Nigeria and the management of the Nigerian economy by the Jonathan Administration which he said had made Nigeria one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world in spite of the current global recession.

The World Bank Vice President also disclosed that by the World Bank’s own criteria and assessment, the level of poverty in Nigeria had actually declined from 48 per cent to 46 per cent under President Jonathan’s leadership.

Mr. Diop assured President Jonathan that the World Bank will “use all instruments available to it” to support Nigeria’s power sector reforms, saying that he had a clear brief from the bank’s President to give all necessary support for the reforms.

Ban of ethno-religious groups - Sanusi The call for all regional, ethnic and religious groupings in Nigeria to be banned has elicited immediate condemnation from leaders of the affected groups.

Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, called for the ban of groups such as Arewa Consultative Forum, Ohanaeze, Afenifere, Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

“These religious organisations, the Arewa, Afenifere, including Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) and CAN, should be banned because they are not religious organisations, they are not culture organisations, they are political associations under the guise of religious organisations,” he said.

The CBN governor noted that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that the Federal Government must promote associations that cut across ethnic groups and the religious divide, adding, “But what we have are religious organisations that invite government officials to speak and the organisations honour them.

They are just glorified institutions.”

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria

He said that the North is sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode, noting: “Agriculture farming there is subsistence. There is no development, no education, no prospect for employment and therefore we are sitting on a time bomb.”

Sanusi also cautioned Nigerians against

eating cow-hide (in local parlance known as ponmo), insisting that a policy should be put in place to export cow-hide as Nigeria “imports 30 million pairs of shoes from China.

However, the same quality of shoes that can be produced in Nigeria.”

Minister insists on buying phones for farmers

Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has said the Federal Government of Nigeria is planning to distribute two million mobile phones to farmers this year, stressing that the government will not directly procure the mobile phones for distribution to the farmers.

“There will be no direct procurement of phones by the Federal Government. We are also not going to give anyone contracts to import phones from China or anywhere else. Let me also state loud and clear: there is no N60 billion anywhere to be used to buy cell phones.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Communications Technology are partnering together to implement this policy. We intend to use the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) to distribute these phones,” the minister said.

According to him, to benefit from the scheme, a farmer must be registered on the e-wallet platform and this will entitle him to receive a paper voucher that will be given to farmers without phones.

“The government will provide a subsidy to the farmer through the voucher to buy the phone. The farmer takes the voucher to the local mobile phone operator and pays the balance, which is the difference between the value of the voucher and the cost of the phone. Once a farmer buys a phone and a SIM card, his new phone number will be updated on the e-wallet database and he will be able to receive his e-wallet voucher, which will entitle him to purchase fertiliser and seeds at subsidised rates.

“Phones will be sold directly to farmers by local mobile phone service providers.

The government simply subsidises the cost of the phone directly to the farmer. Government will work with interested mobile phone service companies to achieve its goal. We intend to start by first targeting farmers who live in areas where there is network coverage already but who do not have phones.

“We will then encourage phone companies to increase their coverage and as they do, we will target farmers in those areas.

By so doing phone companies will have the incentive to expand to rural areas because our programme will assure them of customers in those new areas,” Adesina added.

The minister gave a detailed background of his global experience in helping other countries like Kenya and Malawi to develop their agricultural sector.

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Governor Rauf Aregbesola: Africa’s

By Mike Abiola, Editor-in-Chief

The serious economic recession in Europe is unlikely to improve soon and a new crop of visionary leadership emerging from Africa, especially in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, is one important reason Africans in Diaspora must take steps to invest back home.

I have just returned from Osun State in south-west Nigeria, where I witnessed how the vision of Executive Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is dramatically changing the lives and orientation of the population.

Rampant injustice, mismanagement, corruption and lack of visionary leadership are reasons given as to why in Africa, especially Nigeria, human and material resources are underdeveloped. This is why some of the best brains have migrated to Europe and America while many of the potential workforce are self-confessed economic migrants seeking greener pastures.

The fortunes of most European countries are now nose–diving. In the United Kingdom, for example, the recession has double dipped and in the last six weeks alone over

15,000 jobs have disappeared on the high street starting with Comet, Jessops and now, potentially, HMV. Within the same period while abroad, l witnessed how huge potentials, hitherto unexplored by past leaders, are resulting in opportunities being created for investors to generate employment for armies of unemployed youths.

In the State of Osun, a state created some 21 years ago, the people have never witnessed such rapid development; all taking place in a short two-year span starting November 2010. God has really blessed the state with a hard working, visionary and determined individual in the person of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who is taking government seriously.

Writing for the Nation newspapers in Ni-

Photos: Taofeek Adejare

From Left-Member Osun State House Assembly representative Ifelodun State Constituency, Hon. Lekan Afolabi; Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Commissioner for Finance, Economic Planning & Budget, Hon. Wale Bolorunduro and Commissioner for Land, Physical Planning & Urban Development, Archtec Muyiwa Ige during the Investor Forum of the State Government of Osun N60 Billion Debt Issuance Programme at the Wheabaker Lagos

From Left, Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; the wife of Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi and Consul General of the US Embassy, Lagos, Mr. Jefferey Hawkins during the Post US Election Breakfast at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos State.

geria on his vision for 2013, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said, “God helped us in Osun to engage 20,000 people in less than 100 days of being in office. We have since raised the ante with jobs created directly or indirectly through our various empowerment programmes in agriculture, works and social services. Directly and through the multiplier effect, we have engaged not less than half a million people in two years” I took a tour around Osun with a view to gauge the impact of the administration of Ogbeni, having reported on the foundation work of the government on my last visit.

Two years on, the urban renewal initiative is becoming glaringly obvious. The state capi-

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tal Osogbo is now virtually a construction site. New road extension and dualisation of major highways is ongoing. All major areas are being touched by new road infrastructure and compensation readily handed out to owners of affected real estate.

Ogbeni said, “This year should be a big one for infrastructure in Nigeria. We have done enough talking on the problem. It is high time we started fixing it. We have, in the past, set targets that have been defeated by politics, fiscal illiteracy and bad planning. This year, we should set realistic new targets of one year, five years, 10 years, 20 years and so on, on power, roads, railways and steel development and stand faithfullon

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visionary leader transforming lives

their implementation.”

Two year on, despair is turning to hope. Investors are beginning to earn dividends and citizens are enjoying good governance. It is now time for those who have made Europe home to have a rethink before foreign nationals completely dominate the economy. Early birds are already laughing their way to the bank. An example is the construction of the ultra–modern Ayegbaju International Market and Shopping Mall in Osogbo, planned as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) by the government to revive the state economy.

The market project started six months ago and is attracting buyers of all shades as it caters for all categories of trader, promising an end to the menace of street trading. Edward Property Konsults, the construction firm, is raking in large profits, as the market is set to be over-subscribed.

A number of great investment opportunities are opening up, especially for Osun indigenes in Diaspora and Nigerians abroad.

Ayegbaju Market is only one such opportunity. I am sure, as many of us know, that one can live in the UK and earn well from investments in Nigeria. One sure place to put your life savings and sleep well is Osun, a peaceful, orderly and safe haven with a focussed government.

When Ayegbaju is completed, the N1.3 billion modern market will have 770 open stalls, 392 lock-up shops, 80 lettable office spaces, 192 key clamps, warehouses, public parking, trailer parks, cold rooms, food outlets, a medical centre, a 24-bedroom hotel and mega shopping malls comprising 100 exclusive stores and a cinema.

Speaking at the market’s foundation laying ceremony, Governor Aregbesola said, “The market is designed in such a way that low income and vulnerable traders can con-

veniently trade in the market. This is because there is an open trade area of about 1550 square metres and there are also 192 key clamps to take care of the need of these categories of traders”.

The State of Osun is recording improvement on all fronts. Recent figures released

by The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) place State of Osun second lowest (37.9 per cent), bettered only by Niger (33.8 per cent) in terms of poverty rate of the 36 states in the country. By comparison, the poverty rate in Ondo is 45.7 per cent; Bayelsa State is 47 per cent and Lagos State, 48.6 per cent.

The average poverty rate of the states in the north-west geopolitical zone remained the highest at 71.4 per cent followed by north-east 69.1 per cent and north-central, 60.7 per cent.

The records show that poverty is least prevalent in the south-west, with an average of 49.8 per cent, followed by the south, 55.5 per cent and south-east, 59.5 per cent.

On television, l watched with fascination and satisfaction some state run orientation messages educating citizens on civic duties through introduced state anthems, jingles advising on refuse disposal and, most importantly, on the planned introduction of standardised scales to eliminate non-uniformity and the lack of standardisation in the measurement of various product categories and items sold in markets in the State of Osun.

According to Dr. Wole Alade-Ojomo, an environmental resources and spatial planning consultant and Diaspora returnee from the USA: “The Urban Renewal Scheme of the State of Osun could become a model for enhancing national development when fully executed.”

Addressing crowd at the Iwude Festival 2012

Photos: Taofeek Adejare

The Ori-Olokun Sculptor, Mr Aina Samuel (left in black suit); Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (left in white); Honourable representing Osun East Senatorial District, Senator Babajide Omoworare; Balogun of Ife, General Alani Akinrinade; Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth, Sports and Special needs, Comrade Biyi Odunlade (in face cap) and others, during the Official Commissioning of Ori-Olokun Garden and Unveiling of New Logo for Ife Central Local Government, at Mayfair Rounabout Ile-Ife, State of Osun

At the distribution of free eye glasses

A cross section of State of Osun Indigenes rushing en-masse to board free transport train organized by the Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola from Osogbo to Lagos to mark this New Year festival.

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Tourism CARNIRIV can boost Rivers State inward investment The Rivers State government has restated its commitment to attract foreign investments into the state, following the Rivers State Carnival, popularly referred to as CARNIRIV, which took place in December in state capital Port Harcourt.

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Dr. Sam Dede, Director-General, Rivers State Tourism Development Agency, (RSTDA), expressed optimism that the annual cultural festival, if properly developed, could eventually attract massive direct and indirect investment.

Explaining that the cultural festival, apart from providing opportunities for relaxation and showcasing the diverse cultures of the people, also boosts micro economy, Dr. Dede said: “The main objective of CARNIRIV is to place Rivers State boldly on the

investment map of the world (..) We want to attract not just tourists and culture lovers to the state, but also create a platform to promote economic activities and commercial exchange - not just during the festival period but much after.

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Event Club 87 celebrates end of year dinner

Club 87 fetes friends, professionals and members at its annual dinner at the Hilton Docklands. The event also marked a change of executive batons and rewarded members whose activities deserved commendation in the past year. In attendance was a representative of the Nigeria High Commission and a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Family of Club87 Members

The executive members from Left to Right are: Mr Kingsley Asemota, Social Secretary, Dr Henry Okosun, Vice-President, Chief (Dr) Maurice Sanomi, President, Dr Patrick Rowland, General Secretary, Dr Cyril Evbuomwan, Treasurer, Chief Ike Okosa, Public Relations Officer

Club87 Members

Wives of Club87 Members

Mr Patrick Ideh & guests

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CRIME

Two jailed for burglary Two men have been jailed for burglary after a member of the public spotted them breaking into an address in Oakfield Road, N4 and called police.

John Pitkin, 48 unemployed of Fairbourne Road, N17 appeared for sentencing at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday 11 January where he was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment having pleaded guilty on 24 August 2012.

Richard Campbell, 48 (12.04.64) unemployed of Green Lanes, N8 had earlier pleaded not guilty. However, he appeared for the first day of trial at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday 10 January, where he submitted a guilty plea and was sentenced to three years imprisonment for burglary on 16 August 2012 at a flat in Oakfield Road, N4.

Police were called at about 14:00hrs on 16 August 2012 by a member of the public reporting two men trying to break in through the window of a basement flat [F1] in Oakfield Road, N4.

Officers from Haringey’s Priority Crime Team arrived at the scene within minutes and searched the area for the suspects. Nearby, in the driveway of an address in Albany

Road, officers spotted two men, Pitkin and Campbell, matching the descriptions provided and stopped and searched them.

Pitkin was found in possession of two crowbars, a screwdriver and a car key. The car was found parked nearby and searched where police found property including electrical goods (mobile phone, photographic equipment, laptop), tobacco, clothing and toiletries. This was subsequently identified as having been stolen in a burglary at a flat In Oakfield Road, N4 that had taken place just moments before.

Campbell was found in possession of foreign currency and two mobile smart phones, also identified as having been stolen in the burglary at the flat.

Forensic officers found footwear marks at the scene of the burglary matching the trainers worn by both men. Tool marks at the point of entry resembled that of a crowbar and a flat headed screwdriver, as found on Pitkin, and glove marks were found around the edge of the victim’s television where somebody had attempted to move it.

Both suspects were in possession of woolly gloves at the time of arrest.

Detective Chief Superintendent Sandra Looby, Borough commander for Haringey,

John Pitkiin said: “Two burglars have been taken off our streets as the result of a 999 call from an alert member of the public and the subsequent police response.

“Police officers responding to the call stopped the right men and obtained good early evidence. This, together with the findings of our forensic officers, and the work of our detectives to prepare a solid case against them, led both men to realise they had no option but to plead guilty.

Richard Campbell “Ultimately we are grateful to the member of the public who made that call to police and enabled us to provide a response that resulted in these convictions and contributed to making their neighbourhood safer.”

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Warren Ingrey, said: “These convictions show the continued pressure police in Haringey are putting on those who commit burglary and should reassure residents of our total commitment to bringing offenders to justice.”

Woman jailed for robbery Police station closures a step closer for 2013 of Barkingside pensioner City Hall has set out how changes to policing in London could be introduced later this year.

A woman who violently robbed an elderly woman last summer in Barkingside has been jailed at Snaresbrook Crown Court this week.

On 8 January Samantha Murray, 34 of Genas Close, Ilford was sentenced to four years imprisonment having been found guilty of robbery on 8 January following a 14 day trial.

On Friday, 8 June 2012 the victim, an 83-year-old woman, was in Longwood Gardens, Barkingside, when she was attacked from behind and the force used to yank the victim’s handbag from her pulled the victim to the ground.

Despite having injuries to her back and hand from the fall, the elderly lady bravely tried to hold on to her bag but her robber was too powerful and made off with it.

The victim was unable to get up after her ordeal and was found on the pavement by a member of the public who helped her and flagged down a police vehicle.

As the victim was driven around the area by police, she identified Murray as she stood at a bus stop in Cranbrook Road, Ilford. Murray was arrested in possession of the victim’s property.

Sergeant Matt Taylor from Redbridge Borough, said, “This was a violent rob-

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Samantha Murray

bery on an elderly lady going about her business. She has found the whole incident distressing and it has had a profound effect on her and the way she lives. It has saddened all involved in this case. Whilst I do not want this type of crime to happen, I want the public to know we will robustly investigate any robbery and see that those responsible are bought to justice”.

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and senior police officers have outlined plans that would see 65 police stations closed and replaced with 200 “contact points” set up in supermarkets, churches, council offices and even post offices.

The Met has to save £514million by 2015 after London Mayor Boris Johnson set them a target to cut costs by 20 per cent, cut crime by 20 per cent and boost public confidence in the force.

MOPAC and senior officers within the Met believe that by closing the front counters they can redeploy more officers into safer neighbourhood teams (SNT) in wards across the capital.

It could mean an extra 2,600 officers out on the streets.

Mr Johnson said: “Putting more officers on the streets is key to driving down crime and boosting public confidence in the police and that is why it is at the heart of our plans for policing in the capital.

“In the current economic climate there is no denying that tough decisions will have to be made but policing in the capital is changing and we must change with it by creating a police force that is ready to tackle the issues that matter most to Londoners.”

London boroughs have fewer police offers patrolling the streets at the turn of 2013, than there were five years ago.

Lambeth has lost more than 300 constables and PCSO, while Southwark has a 200officer shortfall.

Detectives from specialist crime squads in boroughs could return to the SNT beat under the proposals.

MPS assistant commissioner Simon Byrne said that SNT officers were the “bedrock” of the new policing model.

He said: “The emphasis is on neighbourhood police inspectors becoming the sheriffs for their boroughs.

“The big emphasis is of neighbourhood officers being at the heart of what we do.”

The closure of more than 200 police buildings across London – including 65 police stations with front counters where the public can report crime – would also include boat yards, car parks and non-operational buildings, Mr Byrne said.

The Met reviewed the number of crimes reported at front counters and identified those that were used the least.

Deputy mayor Stephen Greenhalgh said: “There has been a reduction in members of the public who choose to go to Victorian front counters to report crimes.

“That’s a Victorian idea of how the public can access the service.”

Mr Byrne added: “This is good new for London as we will have more police constables on the street.

“The amount of officers I will have available to me to police the streets will go up by 1,200.”

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Sounds of Diaspora People of America

Typically outspoken; Chuck D doesn’t hold back

Public Enemy’s Chuck D More than any act, hip-hop owes its social conscience to Public Enemy and the band’s leader Chuck D. Next April, Public Enemy will become the fourth hip hop act to be inducted into America’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Right now, however, Chuck D is extremely frustrated. He just wrapped a gruelling cross-country Hip Hop Gods tour featuring Public Enemy, X-Clan, Monie Love, Schoolly D, Leaders of the New School and Awesome Dre, and he feels it didn’t receive enough attention.

“I’m perturbed at the major media for not covering us,” he says. “You didn’t hear about any tours over the last 10 years that weren’t Eminem or Rick Ross or Dre or Jay-Z or Kanye. The media was licking their ass, but we did quite well across the country and got no attention.”

Older rap acts are often called “old school,” but Chuck D thinks they need to be rebranded. “We created another genre called ‘classic rap,’” he says. “I was inspired by the classic rock radio of the Seventies. They separated Chuck Berry and the Beatles from the Led Zeppelins and Bostons and Peter Framptons of the time. In many ways, classic rock became bigger than mainstream rock.”

He also drew inspiration from an unlikely source. “I turned on the TV and saw Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus still golfing,” he says. “I’m like, ‘I thought they were retired.’

Someone was like, ‘Nah, that’s the senior circuit.’ The same thing can be happening in hip-hop. To confuse Schoolly D from Drake is absolutely ridiculous. It’s related, and there can be some interaction there, but the fan bases are different. The meanings are different. These categories protect the legacy of hip-hop.”

Classic rap artists have been playing together for years, but Chuck D was dismayed by the quality of their shows. “They were being treated like shit,” he says. “They threw a bunch of artists on a bald stage. People would come, see a bunch of old records and go home. I realized there had to be a better way to do this. I called up a bunch of people personally and told them the idea for this tour is that nobody is bigger than anybody else. It’s like what Ozzy Osbourne did with Ozzfest. We have a great camaraderie between the artists. We put 33 people on two buses and we all had the same agenda.”

The first Hip Hop Gods tour just wrapped with a show in Los Angeles, but Chuck D is already planning five more for 2013. “I’m not physically going on all of them,” he says. “I’m going to orchestrate them, and my team will actually be an integral part of them. I won’t let them become a circus, which has happened to tours in the past. If you look at hip hop touring now, it’s practically non-existent. There’s a lot of one-offs like Rock the Bells, but a tour that goes east to west, north to south, 3,000 miles, it’s a different kind of animal.”

In the meantime, Chuck D is extremely gratified that Public Enemy are entering the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year. “I’m very fortunate to be acknowledged by my peers,” he says. “I take this very seriously.

I grew up as a sports fan, and I know that a hall of fame is very different than an award for being the best of the year. It’s a nod to the longevity of our accomplishment. When it comes to Public Enemy, we did this on our own terms. I imagine this as a trophy made out of crystal. I’d like to smash it into 10,000 pieces and hand each piece to a contributor.”

The New Yorker, real name Carlton Ridenhour, explained that the induction took him by surprise adding that he’s always tried to excel in his craft. “I had no expecta-

The doctor jailed for his role in the death of Michael Jackson has petitioned for release from prison while the case is reviewed.

Conrad Murray has launched a second appeal over his involuntary manslaughter conviction for the June 2009 death of the King of Pop. The disgraced physician - who was sentenced to four years, has requested he be allowed to leave prison, where he has spent the last 13 months, while the legal process pertaining to his case is being examined; documents obtained by website TMZ show.

The medic insists he is not a flight risk because he has a young child who lives in Los Angeles, and claimed he does not pose a danger to the community. In the papers,

he stresses his belief he was wrongly convicted.

The appeal bid comes less than two months after Murray was denied the chance to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest and his lawyer, Valerie Wass, said at the time: ‘’The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department maintains that Dr. Murray isn’t eligible for house arrest or electronic monitoring.’’

Many lower risk criminals have been transferred to tagging schemes due to overcrowding in Los Angeles jails. While no reason was given for Dr. Murray’s request being refused, he has previously been refused bail on account of his being assessed as a flight risk.

tions whatsoever. I set out at the beginning of my career to be as proficient as an artist, any rock band or any rap group.”

He explained that he’s had the benefit of working with some of the music world’s top talent. “I was trained by the best from Run DMC, to Whodini, to Doug E. Fresh to Anthrax and we knew really at our best, nobody could ever mess with us.”

The Public Enemy rapper pointed out that all of the hip hop inductees have been groups and, according to Chuck D, that fact reflects the collective nature of the genre. “The first four inductees in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame from rap’s standpoint are groups. I always felt that hip-hop was a collective effort . . . groups. Once record companies … turned it into an individual thing, just an MC, that’s when it actually got weaker,” he said.

Chuck D has little patience for people who say hip-hop acts don’t belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Hip-hop is a part of rock & roll because it comes from DJ culture,” he says. “DJ culture is the embodiment of all genres and all recorded music, if you actually pay attention to it.”

Public Enemy will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on April 18th at a Los Angeles ceremony alongside Rush, Heart, Randy Newman, Donna Summer and Albert King. “We

guarantee we’re going to tear that damn place down,” says Chuck D. “I might tell DJ Lord to rock the beginning of ‘Tom Sawyer.’ Then people will be shaking their heads like, ‘What the f*** is going on?’

That’s the ability of what I consider probably one of the greatest performing bands in hip-hop history. It’s not bragging, because I don’t brag about myself, but my guys are the best in the business. There’s nobody that can touch Flava Flav. There’s nobody else like him in the world.”

There’s been no talk of any onstage collaborations with any of the other artists, but Public Enemy has a long history of working with rock groups. They recorded a new version of “Bring the Noise” with Anthrax in 1991, toured with U2 in 1992 and recorded “He Got Game” with Stephen Stills in 1998.

“The goal was to enhance (‘For What It’s Worth’), to take it to another level,” Chuck D says. “I totally hate when somebody takes a classic and desecrates it. I like Jimmy Page and P. Diddy, but what they did to ‘Kasmhir’ was a debacle. They are giants in their own way – and you can print this – but that was a f***ing travesty. When I get involved with a classic, I knock the f***ing ceiling out of it or I leave it the f*** alone.”

Jacko doc in second release bid

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Gospel

YOU HAVE A CALLING

D

By Michael Adekoya

“Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I called you and ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Jer. 1:4-5.

ear Reader, “Pastor, you mean I have a calling?” This was the question a youth asked me recently. And my answer is, “Yes!” My friend, is that your question too? Listen! Before God made the world, He chose you in Christ. He appointed, called and ordained you that you should bring forth fruit that fruit should remain (John 15:16). In other words, you have an assignment to carry out in this world. That’s why you are alive and still breathing. God has made you a keeper of a vineyard.

My friend, there is a reason why you were born. God has given you an assignment to carry out in your relationship, family, church, community, city and nation.

You are created to solve specific problems which no one else can solve except you. The reason why you buy a car or a motorbike is because it solves transportation problem. Mechanic solves car problems. Your television solves information problem. Your eyes have an assignment to see and your ears solve the problem of hearing.

When Adam had problem, God made Eve, as the solution Gen. 2:18. Did you hear that?

So, my friend, you are not an accident in this world. You have a calling. You are a solution, a reward and an answer to somebody.

Someone in your home, family, church, community, street, workplace, school, city and nation needs you. You are necessary to somebody, somewhere today and everyday. You were created for a specific assignment. This is what He is going to measure your success of failure with. You will not be judged by what you did but in line with what you are called to do on earth. What are you called to

do? Not what are you popular or famous at?

My friend, I don’t know what you are doing now. But the question is, “Are you keeping your own vineyard” Are you in your appointed place – the place where

made us kings and priests unto God, His Father…to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen”(Rev 1:6). In other words, every Church of Jesus Christ consists of two categories of people – priests and kings or

greatest tragedy in life is not death but life without a reason. Without purpose life is just an experiment!

So, your greatest challenge is to discover your purpose in life and live in the centre of it. God has made you a keeper of a vineyard.

Soweto Gsopel Choir God’s blessings that add no sorrow will flow? When you are in the right place and in the right calling where God expects of you to be, the blessings always come. The Bible says, “Up to this time, God had caused the dew to water the earth each morning but there had been no downpour from heavens.”

Why? “Because there was not a man to till the ground.” Gen 2:5.

Are you the man or woman?

My friend, there are some things God has planned to do in your home, family, church, business, work-place, ministry, community, city and nation and He longs to do it along with you but He can’t until you get into the place of revelation where you can receive them. This is the reason why you need to discover your purpose, develop it and deploy it. Jesus Christ has

Pastors and members. Both are called and ordained! You just have to know your own calling.

While the priests provide the vision, the kings provide the provision. The priests minister in the house of God or go into the world to preach the Gospel to every creature; while the kings go into the market or work-place to bring provision for the fulfilment of the vision. So both the priests and kings are called. My friend, you’ll only succeed when your assignment becomes your obsession and when you refused to let anything or anyone break your focus. It is time to build your life around your calling, assignment or purpose in life. Everybody is somebody in the Body!

My friend, do you know that you were born for a purpose? The

Today, many have not discovered their own vineyard simply because they are busy keeping or taking care of someone else’s vineyard!

Is that you? Fulfilling your Godgiven purpose or completing your race pleases God. And He has given you what you need to fulfil it.

In spite of his failures, the Bible says, “David had served God’s purpose in his own generation…”

Acts 13:36. I believe there is no greater testimony than that! The Bible says, before Enoch was translated, he had this testimony that he pleased God (Heb. 11:5).

Apostle Paul said, “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course (assignment); I have kept the faith” 2 Tim 4:7. My friend, what are you living for? You become your own worst enemy

a bible school, primary, is involved in extensive mission work in Eastern Europe, Italy and India. For information you may call 020 8680 7671 Ruach Ministries - holds meeting at 9am, 11am and 6pm. For information you may call 020 8678 6888 International Central Gospel church - Battersea chapel, holds meetings on Sundays from 2.00pm. . For information you may call 020 8684 4934 Jesus Arena International- Sunday service at 11.00am at Broadwater farm centre, Adams road N17 The Bible Life Church UK- They meet on Sunday mornings at 2.30pm at St Giles Centre, Camberwell

Church Street, London SE5 Christ Apostolic church (Full Gospel & Pentecostal) Surrey Docks District 163 Ilderton Rd South Bermondsey London SE16 2UT. Tel. 020 7252 2086.

Time of worship: Sunday English service 9- 11.30am. Yoruba service 11.30 -2.30pm. Prophetic counselling: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 12noon- 5pm, Saturday only 5- 7pm.

Holy Cross Church InternationalSunday 10.am- 1 pm at Crown House 71-73 Nathan way London SE28 0BQ Tel: 07904 234 126, 07809 381 886 Times of service:Bible study: Thursdays 8pm. Night Vigil: Friday Forthnightly 12am

Are you looking for a church? ­­

Not settled in any particular congregation?

Perhaps now is the time to pray about it If you are not yet saved try one of the following: Jubilee International Churchmeets at 2,30pm on Sundays at Kings Avenue, school, park hill. London SW4. Part of Jubilee International Churches worldwide. For information, you may call (020)8697 3354 New Wine Christian Church- 11am holds meeting at Ringcross Tennants club, Lough Road, Holloway, N7. a member of the Icthus fellowship

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worldwide. For more information call 020 7609 959 or 07957 757 663.

Praise Tabernacle- 10:30am holds meetings at 620 Western Avenue (A40), park royal Business centre, opposite Warner Bros. Cinema Complex, W3. part of The Redeemed Christian Church of God. For information you may call 020 8993 3010 New Life Christian Centre 10.30am & 6.00pm. meetings at Cairo New Road, Croydon. The church has

when you are fearful of stepping out in faith to walk in your calling because of what people will say, because of making a new mistake or because of the mistake of the past.

My friend, what is your calling?

What is your God-given purpose or assignment in life? Why are you still breathing? Why are you in that relationship, family, workplace, church, school, government, street, community, city and nation?

It is time to discover it and take a step of faith to discharge it. Satan’s goal is to separate you from your faith because he knows that faith pleases God (Heb. 11:6); faith gets answers to your prayers (Mark 11:24) and faith makes you an overcomer (1 John 5:4).The just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17).

The Good News is that Satan is terrified of people who are called

by God. So, don’t be afraid of him.

The God who called you is behind you.

My friend, refuse anything that weighs you down or distract you to fulfil your calling. Build your life around your God-given purpose. When you do that, wrong relationships will die and right ones will be born. Don’t let fear force you to serve others or to live your life to please others. Enoch just concentrated on walking with God and pleasing Him until God took him. Nothing in your life today is more important than finding and fulfilling your purpose or your calling. What are you called to do in the life of your spouse, in your family, in the church, in your work-place, school, community, street, city and nation? Just do it to please God and for His glory!

Time is short. Jesus is coming back! Remain blessed!

Sunday Service: Sundays 10am - 1pm Winners Chapel London- part of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, at Unit B1 Galleywall Trading Estate, South Bermondsey, London SE16 3PB meets Sunday 7am & 9am and 11am and Wednesdays at 7pm. For details call 020 7237 7894 CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH GRAVESEND, ST. AIDAIN’S CHURCH, ST. AIDAN’S WAY, GRAVESEND, KENT, DA12 4AG TEL. 01474 355 841, 07956 38 38 70 TIME OF WORSHIP: Wednesday Bible Study: 7:30pm to 9:00pm Friday, Night Vigil: 9pm to 11pm Sunday Worship: 12:30pm to 3:00pm

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Africa

Kenya

Fake police chief outed after 5 years A man has been charged with impersonating a police officer in Kenya’s Rift Valley province. However, this is no ordinary case, if such cases can ever be said to be ordinary. Joshua Waiganjo is alleged to have pretended to be an assistant police commissioner and remained undetected for five years! Even more extraordinarily, this was a repeat of a similar offence a decade ago for which Waiganjo was convicted and jailed.

Waiganjo was reportedly uncovered this time after flying on a police helicopter to investigate the November killing of at least 42 officers in the Suguta valley - the most deadly attack on police in the East African nation’s history.

President Mwai Kibaki has ordered an investigation into the case and three top officers: Rift Valley police boss John M’Mbijiwe, Anti Stock Theft Unit commandant Remi Ngugi and Njoro Officer Commanding Police Division Peter Nthiga have been suspended.

Mr Waiganjo is said to have sacked and recruited several officers in Rift Valley province while allegedly impersonating the local

Newsround

Zimbabwe

Zim kids learn Chinese

Waiganjo in police regalia

police chief and had been photographed socialising with genuine high-ranking officers, some of whom now deny they know him.

In court last week, he denied two counts of impersonating a police officer, one of illegal possession of police uniforms and one of robbery with violence.

The case was adjourned to allow Mr Waiganjo to seek medical treatment for diabetes, local media reported.

Cameroon

“Gay-looking” men freed after a year in jail Two men sentenced to five years in prison for “looking gay” were ordered to be released by a court of appeal in Cameroon after serving over a year behind bars.

Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

Human rights advocates say the men were targeted by guards and other prisoners who abused them over their alleged homosexuality.

Vague local reports claim Singa Kimie and Ndjome Francky were arrested in the country’s capital Yaoundé in July of 2011 for wearing “effeminate” clothing and ordering a “gay” drink — Bailey’s Irish Cream. They were also said to have been wearing a wigs and speaking in a “feminine” manner.

Gay rights advocates have long pressed Cameroon president Paul Biya to temper the country’s notoriously harsh anti-gay laws. Though Monday’s ruling was welcomed Roger Jean-Claude Mbede and the message by many, it came on the heels that landed him in jail of an appeals court decision Homosexuality is illegal and punished seto uphold the five-year sentence of Roger verely in many African countries. The maxiJean-Claude Mbede who was jailed for texmum penalty in Cameroon is five years in ting the words “I’m very much in love with jail. you” to a man.

Grace Mugabe has lent her name to the exclusive new school A Chinese language is to be taught in a newly opened school in Mazowe.

Named after President Mugabe’s current wife, Amai Grace Mugabe Junior School was opened last week with 97 pupils and is expected to teach a Chinese language – Mandarin being the nation’s lingua franca, among other subjects.

The opening of Grace Mugabe Junior School was witnessed by Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Lin Lin. According to ZBC News, the pioneer group comprises 41 girls and 56 boys. Thirty of the pupils are day scholars drawn from the Mazowe community while 67 are boarders.

Speaking during a brief ceremony to mark the opening of the school, Grace Mugabe said she valued education as the cornerstone of national development.

“The school places strong emphasis on independent, creative and critical thinking, equipping the children with skills that can be adapted to the modern

working and learning environment,” she said.

Sports such as hockey, cricket and rugby will also be taught at the school.

The double storey school complex, built on 7 720 square metres of land has 27 classrooms, a library, an art room, a music room, offices and auxiliary equipment rooms.

Construction of the school began on November 8, 2011 and was completed 11 months later on 31 October 2012. The school is the second phase of projects that have been implemented in Mazowe under the Grace Mugabe Foundation following the establishment of the Grace Mugabe Children’s Home, which is catering for 47 children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Plans are already at an advanced stage to establish a secondary school and a tertiary institution in the area under the Grace Mugabe Foundation projects.

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Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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African Music Artist

Babatunde Olatunji

O

n April 6, 2003, only one day before his 76th birthday, one of the most important figures in popular music of the later half of the 20th century passed away surrounded by family and friends - and surrounded spiritually by the love and prayers of thousands of people around the world who also counted him among their family.

Babatunde died just ten days after being admitted to Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, of complications due to his long struggle with the effects of Diabetes.

Olatunji had a profound impact on everyone who knew him and everyone who had been touched by his love for the drum and the African culture that nurtured that love.

Babatunde Olatunji was born 1927 in the small village of Ajido, Nigeria, about forty miles from Lagos, the capital of the country. This small fishing and trading town amplified the ebb and flow of the seasons through the sounds of drumming that echoed through the nights.

As a child, Olatunji accompanied his great aunt Tanyin to hear the drums - hollowed out from trees and covered with the skin of goats - punctuate the lives of his people.

The drummers celebrated every occasion, proclaimed the coming of local politicians, evoked the dreams and aspirations of their people. The drumbeat of his childhood became the life blood of his adult experience as Olatunji grew and traveled throughout the world popularizing the music of his Yoruban heritage.

While still in Africa in the late ‘40s, the ever resourceful Olatunji read in Reader’s Digest about the Rotary International Foundation scholarships offered to youths from waraffected countries. By 1950, Olatunji and his cousin were each awarded a scholarship and were on their way to America to attend school in Atlanta, Georgia. Olatunji came to the U.S. determined to succeed in the international arena, at the time he had no aspirations to be a musician.

In 1954, after graduating from Atlanta’s Moorehouse College with a degree in Diplomacy, Olatunji moved to New York to begin a Political Science postgraduate

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program in Public Administration at New York University. Throughout his American education he had a unique perspective on the cultural divides between black and white Americans. Early on he realized that music, drumming in particular, had the ability to break down the long-established cultural divisions within the “Melting Pot” that America was thought to be in those days.

These sorts of insights were the motivating factor that brought Olatunji to begin performing the drumming of his Yoruba ancestors.

To cover his expenses he started a small drumming and dance group. Recognizing the influence of African polyrhythms in jazz, some of Olatunji’s earliest fans were the jazz greats of the time; men like John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, Clark Terry, George Duvivier, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Taj Mahal, Pete Seeger, Bill Lee (Spike Lee’s father), and Dance luminary Alvin Ailey; not to mention the legendary noted Columbia A&R man John Hammond who produced Olatunji’s first album. Even Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (also a Moorehouse graduate) invited Olatunji to tour with him.

In 1957 when Columbia Records producer John Hammond heard Olatunji performing at Radio City Music Hall with a 66-piece orchestra, he was so impressed that this fortuitous meeting led directly to the recording of Drums of Passion. Released in 1959 by Columbia Records, Olatunji’s first album became an unprecedented, worldwide smash hit. It was the first album to bring genuine African music to Western ears, and it went on to sell over five million copies and is still a popular recording.

In 1964 Olatunji performed at the African Pavilion at the New York World Fair where he was able to raise enough money to open the Olatunji Center for African Culture (OCAC) in Harlem, offering classes in African dance, music, language, folklore, and history. During this period Baba’s students included people like Gordy Ryan, Leon Mobley, Arthur Hull, Yao Tamakloe, Anindo Abukusta - musicians who both performed with him in his band and who today continue on to spread Baba’s love for the drum all over the world.

The National Endowment of the Arts help to fund Olatuni’s OCAC teacher and student training programs which went to all over the schools in the New York tri-state area, all the way to Long Island. Mickey Hart first encountered Olatunji in one of those educational African programs. In his classes Baba always asked the students to come and beat on the drums and he first recognized Mickey’s talent over 25 years ago in one of those programs.

Olatunji’s impact on the drumming culture around the world is unprecedented. He has been a member of the faculties at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York for over 15 years. He played with Mickey Hart, the Grateful Dead, Airto Moreira, and Carlos Santana on his 1986 recording

Drums of Passion: The Beat.

“Rhythm is the soul of life.

The whole universe revolves in rhythm.

Everything and every human action revolves in rhythm.”

In concert and in the studio, Olatunji opted for a big sound, often using 20 or more singers, percussionists, and dancers. His two Rykodisc releases produced by Mickey Hart -- Drums of Passion: The Beat (1989) and Drums of Passion: The Invocation (1988) -- show both his willingness to experiment and find common ground with American musicians, and his devotion to ancient African traditions.

In 1991 he and Hart joined forces on Planet Drum, a group that toured around the country and later recorded an album that won a Grammy Award. His composition “Jingo Lo Ba” has become a timeless anthem and a signature song for the rock group Santana.

He has written scores for Broadway and Hollywood productions, including the music for She’s Gotta Have It, a film by Spike Lee. In 1997, Chesky Records released Love Drum Talk, which went on to be nominated for the 1998 Grammy for Best World Music Album.

Baba was the single most important contributor to the popularization of African

hand drumming in the United States. Baba created the popular Gun-Dun, Go-Do, PaTa method of learning drum patterns in which these spoken sounds were able to help recall the sounds made on most hand drums -- with the Gun-Dun denoting the bass notes played with right and left hands; the Go-Do denoting the open tones; and the Pa-Ta denoting the slaps. This simple method revolutionized the learning rate for thousands of hand drum students in the West.

He is also well-known for popularizing the popular Liberian rhythm Fanga (a song of welcome to which he added words), which was often played for him by his students when he would enter a workshop.

For the few years before his death Olatunji made his home at Esalen Institute along the wild Big Sur coastline in California, where he continued to teach while battling the ravages of Diabetes. Olatunji traveled throughout the world for almost half a century giving percussion workshops spreading his love of the drum, song, music, and African culture inspiring generations of American musicians, many of whom have devoted their careers to African music and who are, in turn, spreading Baba’s message to their students.

Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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African Music Artist

Milton Nascimento

A

s a baby, Milton Nascimento was adopted by a couple who were his mother’s former employers; Josino Brito Campos, a bank employee, mathematics teacher and electronic technician and Lília Silva Campos, a music teacher and choir singer. When he was 18 months old, Nascimento’s biological

mother died, and he moved with his adopted parents to the city of Três Pontas, in the state of Minas Gerais.

Nascimento was an occasional DJ on a radio station that his father once ran. He lived in the boroughs of Laranjeiras and Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro.

In the early stages of his career, Nasci-

mento played in two samba groups: Evolussamba and Sambacana. In 1963, he moved to Belo Horizonte, where his friendship with Lô Borges led to the Clube da Esquina (“corner club”) movement. Members included Beto Guedes, Toninho Horta, Wagner Tiso, and Flávio Venturini, with whom he shared compositions and melodies. One composition was “Canção do Sal”, which was first interpreted by Elis Regina in 1966 and led to a television appearance with Nascimento. The collective, as well as some others, released Clube da Esquina in 1972.

Several hit singles were also released.

Nascimento is famous for his falsetto and tonal range, as well for highly acclaimed songs such as “Maria, Maria”, “Canção da América” (“Song from America”/”Unencounter”), “Travessia”, “Bailes da Vida” and “Coração de Estudante” (“Student’s Heart”). The lyrics remember the funeral of the student Edson Luís, killed by police officers in 1968. The song became the hymn for the Diretas Já social-political campaign in 1984, was played at the funeral of the late President of Brazil Tancredo Neves the next year, and was also played at Ayrton Senna’s funeral.

While his reputation within Brazil was firmly established with his Clube da Es-

quina works, Nascimento’s international breakthrough came with his appearance on jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s 1974 album Native Dancer. This led to widespread acclaim, and collaborations with stars such as Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, George Duke and Quincy Jones and the band Earth, Wind and Fire. Angelus (1994) features appearances by Pat Metheny, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Nana Vasconcelos, Jon Anderson, James Taylor, and Peter Gabriel. Through his friendship with guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, Nascimento came to work with the pop rock band Duran Duran in 1993. Nascimento co-wrote and performed the song “Breath After Breath”, featured on the band’s 1993 album Duran Duran. He also performed with the band in concert when they toured in Brazil in support of that album.

In 1996, Nascimento contributed the song “Dancing” to the AIDS-Benefit Album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization.

In 2004, he worked with the Brazilian Heavy Metal band Angra, in the song “Late Redemption”. The song is on the Temple of Shadows album.

Thione Seck

T

hione Ballago Seck (born March 12, 1955) is one of Senegal’s greatest singers and musicians in the mbalax genre, on par with Baaba Maal and Youssou N’dour although he hasn’t achieved the same level of fame outside his country.

Seck comes from a family of “griot” singers from the Wolof people of Senegal.

His first job was with Orchestre Baobab, but he later formed his own band, Raam Daan, which he still heads.

Seck’s album Orientation was one of four nominated for BBC3 Radio’s World Music Album of the Year in 2006. In much of his music, and notably on this album, Seck experiments with the use of Indian & Arabic scales. This supplements his laid back vocals and the band’s intense sabar driven rhythms, and displaces the band’s more usual guitars, horns, and synthesizers. This album was made in collaboration with a range of more than 40 North African, Arab, and Indian musicians, playing diverse instruments and creating a fusion of styles. Seck has stated that Bollywood films were a longstanding musical influence for him, and the experiment in a fusion style reflects this.

Other albums include XV Anniversary Live! (his second international release) and Daaly. He contributed “Laye

M’Boup,” a tribute to the late Orchestre Baobab leader, to the The Music In My Head soundtrack. Seck also wrote “Entends-tu le monde?” which was the lead single from Australian singer Tina Arena’s seventh studio album 7 vies.

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Friday, 18 January 2013 – Thursday, 24 January 2013

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Property

2013 Finance Bill amendments hit foreign buyers in London

By Ugo Arinzeh

When the UK Annual Budget was announced in March 2012, it proposed increases in Stamp Duty on property purchases (Table 1), as well as consultation on the introduction of an annual charge on residential properties valued over £2M owned by “non-natural persons” (NNPs) (Table 2), and an end to Capital Gains Tax exemption.

Most experts believe that the primary purpose of the changes was to prevent people from using offshore company structures to avoid Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Stamp Duty, as many of these structures were based in offshore tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands.

However, others argue that wealthy foreigners use the company structure merely as a means of protecting identity for security reasons.

The effect of the budget announcement at the time was to create uncertainty as to which entities and transactions would be captured under the NNPs designation and whether a “mansion tax” on £2M+ homes might be later added. This has resulted in a significant reduction in transactions involving high valued properties, with the number of exchanges of

London properties worth between £2M and £5M declining 44% for the July – September 2012 period compared to the same period in 2011, according to Knight Frank (December 2012 Market Update). Savills has recorded the decline at between 20% - 25% for the 2nd and 3rd quarters this financial year as compared to 2011 (29/11/12 Property Wire report). While the most expensive properties have been adversely effected, the sub £2M market has remained strong and prices overall have continued to rise and are 9.4% higher year on year.

The draft Finance Bill released in December has provided much needed clarity, as it confirmed there would be an annual charge for properties owned

by NNPs called an Annual Residential Property Tax (ARPT) as well as Capital Gains Tax levied upon their disposal (as high as 28%, with a tapered relief for those close to the £2M threshold).

In addition, it clarifies which NNP entities will be excluded and will return the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on purchases of £2M+ properties owned by such excluded entities to 7% next summer.

The exempted entities/categories include: • • • • • • • •

property developers those letting out properties on a commercial basis homes open to the public property trading companies company properties used to provide employee accommodation farmhouses occupied by working farmers properties used by charities some other diplomatically or publicly owned properties

However, included is a “claw-back” provision where the additional 8% will be due (the difference between 15% Potential Results Overall the changes mean that foreign buyers of high end property using offshore vehicles will have to pay more in tax, while genuine commercial investors (developers, traders, investors) will not. But the reduction to 7% for these exempted entities does not take effect until summer 2013, which means that they will either have to wait until then to pay the reduced rate or incur an additional 8% levy on the cost of buying the same property. This will certainly continue to adversely effect the volume of

and 7%) if the entities fail to show that they have been used for genuine commercial purposes within 3 years.

transactions in the over £2M+ category.

The ARPT will have the greatest impact on prime central London where 60% of all UK properties over £2M are located. In the past, the London prime residential market has absorbed the additional costs associated with buying a property and most foreign buyers still perceive the overall cost as reasonable compared to buying in other markets.

It remains to be seen whether the most recent changes will have the long term effect of suppressing the foreign buyers’ appetite.

Ugo Arinzeh is owner of Onyx Real Estate Management, a London based real estate services firm providing property acquisition, management and interior design for residential properties. For more information contact: ugo@onyxrem.com or +44 (0) 7703 183750.

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Who will emerge as the 2013 winner?

Ghana are still searching for a first Africa Cup of Nations title since they last won the tournament in 1982.

The Black Stars beat Malawi 1-0 in Lilongwe in the return leg final round qualifier to wrap up a 3-0 aggregate win for what will be their 19th appearance in the competition.

Coach Kwesi Appiah will be the first Ghanaian coach to lead the four-time champions at the Nations Cup in 11 years by the time the tournament gets underway in South Africa in January.

He will be hoping to emulate Osam Duodu - the last native coach the Black Stars had - leading the youthful Ghana squad to go beyond the group stages in the 2002 finals in Mali.

Appiah, an ex-Ghana captain, was an assistant coach to the team for four years before he was elevated as head coach in March 2012.

The former Asante Kotoko left-back has helped discover a lot of talent including FC Porto’s whizkid Christian Astu, who mesmerised their opponents during the qualifiers.

Star Player: Asamoah Gyan

National team captain, Asamoah Gyan has assured President John Mahama and Ghanaians that all his Black Stars teammates are prepared to put down their lives for the country, all in the bid to win that elusive 5th Cup of Africa Nations title.

Gyan leads Ghana into a major tournament for the first time at the 29th continental showpiece which begins next weekend in South Africa with the Black Stars paired in Group B alongside DR Congo, Mali and Niger.

“The President has done a lot to inspire us in the past and we never got the chance so I will use this opportunity to thank you for all the good work you’ve been doing for the Black Stars,” Gyan said when the Black Stars called on President Mahama at the Castle in Osu on Thursday January 3. The Ghana captain added: “We thank you very much and promise to work hard to win CAN 2013 for you and Ghanaians. Hopefully at the end of the tournament, we’ll come back with smiles on our faces.”

Zambia

Zambia will parade an even stronger squad than last year when they defend the Africa Cup of Nations title won against massive odds in Gabon.

In come defender Emmanuel Mbola, midfielder William Njobvu and striker Jacob Mulenga, who missed the dramatic triumph 12 months ago when Chipolopolo stunned firm favourites Ivory Coast.

After regular and extra time failed to deliver a goal, it came down to a penalty 22

Asamoah Gyan shoot-out and defender Stoppila Sunzu calmly stroked the ball into the corner to give his country a maiden title. Mbola, from former Champions League winners Porto, missed out because of a FIFA suspension and injuries sidelined Israel-based Njobvu and Mulenga from Dutch outfit Utrecht. It was fitting that Zambia should succeed in Libreville as a military aircraft carrying the 1993 national squad to Senegal for a World Cup qualifier crashed into the sea just off the coastal city, killing all on board.

French coach Herve Renard could not contain his feelings after Sunzu scored to shake African football to the core with his team given no chance of winning a tournament expected to be dominated by Ivory Coast and Ghana. “It was written in the stars,” said the young Frenchman, who became famous not only for his motivational skills but also for wearing the same white shirt and denim jeans at each of the six Zambian matches. A safe bet is that the fairhaired pin-up of African football coaches will wear the same shirt and jeans when he stands, arms folded, beside the dug-out for the January 21 Group C opener against Ethiopia in Nelspruit. He will also be desperate for maximum points against the Walias Antelopes, believing a good start to the tournament is vital if they are top a group that also includes powerful Nigeria and perennial underachievers Burkina Faso. “The first game against Ethiopia is very important it is crucial that we start the tournament with a win just as we did last year,” Renard told reporters as the team prepared in South Africa. “A lot of pundits do not believe we can win the title again and do not want to take risks with their predictions. It is easier to say Zambia will never win the Cup of Nations again.

“Should we fail to retain the trophy, it simply means another team was better than

us. However, it will be very difficult to beat this Zambian team,” he warned amid domestic media criticism of poor warm-up results. Renard reacted to losses against Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and Angola by reminding doubters that the build-up to the 2012 Africa Cup was hardly inspiring as Zambia were held by minnows Namibia and a depleted South Africa. With classy midfielder Rainford Kalaba recovered from a groin injury, the coach can choose from a full-strength squad with goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene, defender Sunzu and captain and striker Christopher Katongo other key figures.

(Gervinho, Kalunho, Max Gradel) organised around the reliable back-bone of Copa Barry-Didier ZokoraYaya Touré-Didier Drogba.

For the group phase draw of the 29th Africa Cup of Nations that will take place on 24 October in Durban, Côte d’Ivoire find themselves among the top seeds in Pot 1 along with the host nation, South Africa, the title-holder, Zambia, and Ghana.

Rainford Kalaba

Star Player: Rainford Kalaba

Rainford Kalaba is Chipolopolo midfielder and the African Player of the year (Based in Africa), he has told Zambian media he will be fit to play.

“I am better and looking forward to continue with the same performance I gave them in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea,” he says.

“By the start of the first game, I will be fit for the tournament. The Zambian people should come in numbers and support us.

South Africa is like our home ground.

Cote D’Ivoire

Côte d’Ivoire qualified for their 20th Africa Cup of Nations finals when they disposed of the Lions of Senegal in the final round of qualifiers, with a notable historic victory in Dakar.

Ranked as the number one African nation (16th worldwide) on FIFA’s latest rankings, the team will once again be one of the most serious candidates for the continental title at the 2013 Afcon in South Africa.

The Elephants won the 1992 edition, but have failed twice in the final since then, in 2006 and in the last tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea where they lost in a penalty shootout against Zambia.

This coming tournament represents what is perhaps the last chance for a whole golden generation of international Ivoirians to finally lay their hands on the continental trophy, that of Didier Drogba and the very first Académiciens of ASEC Mimosas; Copa Barry, Kolo Touré, Siaka Tiéné, Didier Zokora, Igor Lolo, Romaric N’Dri. The national team coach Sabri Lamouchi, who was appointed to the position of head coach as replacement to François Zahoui in May, will be counting on experience to attain their goal.

They have a solid defence (Souleymane Bamba, Kolo Touré) and very fast strikers

Star Player: Didier Drogba

Didier Drogba feels confident that he can lead Ivory Coast to a second Africa Cup of Nations title after coming close twice.

“We have a team capable of great things at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations,” says Drogba on Fifa.com. “It would be great to win the trophy now. Honestly, we are getting tired of losing out each time.

“We showed great solidarity against Senegal (in the qualifiers). We fought together, everybody gave of himself and this helped us to win. And now everybody expects a trophy. We hope to give the Cup to our country.”

Drogba was part of the team that reached the Nations Cup finals in 2006 and 2012, losing to Egypt and Zambia.

The striker is part of his country’s ‘golden generation’, which also includes Yaya and Kolo Toure, Didier Zokora and Emmanuel Eboue.

The Afcon in South Africa is likely to be the last chance for the 34 year-old to win the title.

Nigeria

This will be Nigeria’s 17th appearance at the tournament proper after they sensationally failed to qualify for the 2012 edition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea last year.

They have won the tournament twice, on home soil in 1980 and then in Tunisia in 1994.

They were also beaten finalists in 1984, 1988, 1990 as well as 2000, which they cohosted with Ghana.

To qualify for the 2013 AFCON, they eliminated Rwanda and Liberia.

The Super Eagles dispatched of the Lone Star of Liberia 6-1 in the return leg of a final qualifier in Calabar and thus head to South Africa on an 8-3 aggregate.

Such a comprehensive result has restored

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Didier Drogba some public confidence in the team after they failed to qualify last year for this year’s competition.

However, partly as a result of this failure they are not among the top seeds for the 2013 tournament meaning they could clash with the likes of hosts South Africa, perennial rivals Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and defending champions Zambia as early as the first round of this championship.

Star Player: Victor Moses

The Chelsea hitman is currently training with his Super Eagles team-mates and they begin their campaign against Burkina Faso at the Mbombela Stadium on Monday, and Moses hopes he can have a big impact on the continental showpiece, and help the country forget about their short-comings prior to the 2012 showpiece..

“I am confident of a good outing in South Africa,” he said.

“We have prepared well and, having missed the last tournament, wish to make Nigerians proud by the end of it.

“This is my first Africa Cup of Nations and I want to make it a memorable one.

“I want to play in every match, score when the opportunity presents itself and help players in good positions to also score.

“When all these (things) happen, they (supporters) can be sure that we are going to bring back the trophy.”

South Africa

Four years after their readmission to the international stage after many years of exile, a Nelson Mandela-inspired South Africa marked their return to the football world with a bang, winning the 1996 African Cup of Nations at home, beating Tunisia 2-0 in the final in Johannesburg thanks to two goals from Mark Williams.

However, unfortunately for the country, (who in 1996 were ranked 16th in the world), since then it has been a steady decline, with their current world ranking having them placed at 76th and 19th in Africa.

Following the 1996 African Cup of Nations

success, Bafana Bafana finished second in 1998, third in 2000, reached the last eight in 2002, but were then knocked out at the first round stage of the next three tournaments.

Things were at their worst for the national team when they failed to qualify for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, while only ensuring their place at the 2010 World Cup due to the fact that they were hosting the tournament (their third appearance). Still, in their home world cup, while they did not qualify past the group stages they did manage to register a 2-1 win over France in their last match.

Since then the coaching staff has changed as Pitso Mosimane has departed and has been replaced by Gordon Igesund who seems to have breathed new life and hope into the team.

Igesund brings with him an open mind and willingness to attack that previous Bafana coaches lacked. With it he has also handed out a barrage of new caps to players never heard of, but in the beginning stages of his coaching career it appears to be working.

matches.

Tshabalala won his first eight caps as a Free State Stars

Star Player: Siphiwe Tshabalala

Angola

Siphiwe Tshabalala will head into the Africa Cup of Nations as the most experienced member of the Bafana Bafana squad, with 73 caps to his name.

The Kaizer Chiefs midfielder is quite a distance ahead of his teammates in caps, with the man second to him being Siboniso

Victor Moses

Gaxa, further down on 54.

Shabba – famous around the globe for scoring the 2010 World Cup opening goal – made his Bafana debut on January 14, 2006 against Egypt, ahead of the disastrous 2006 Nations Cup campaign.

When he made his Bafana debut Tshabalala was still at Free State Stars and has gone on to score 10 goals in the senior national team.

Of the 73 games that the 28-year-old has played for Bafana he has played from start to finish in 23 of those matches.

With South Africa enjoying the luxury of hosting the 2009 Confederations Cup, 2010 World Cup and 2013 Nations Cup, 46 of the Shabba’s caps have come from friendly

player, with the other 65 coming during his time at Amakhosi.

Tshabalala has played at the 2006 and 2008 Nations Cups, 2009 Confederations Cup, 2010 World Cup and is now in line to add the 2013 Nations Cup, but the only piece of silverware he has to his name is the 2007 Cosafa Castle Cup. Angola have now qualified for their fifth successive Africa Cup of Nations finals, but have failed to make the impact they would have liked on the continental stage.

It is good consistency from a country that has only been to seven finals in total, 1996 and 1998 being the others, as internal strife took its toll on their football.

Their best showing has been a quarterfinal place in Ghana in 2008 and when they hosted in 2010, but they have lacked the quality to get beyond that stage.

This is possibly also a last bite at the cherry for the likes of star striker Manucho and midfielder Gilberto, who have been loyal servants to the national cause down the years, but are reaching the end of their careers.

They qualified for the 2013 finals on the away goals rule having been given a scare by COSAFA rivals Zimbabwe and their form remains highly inconsistent. Their coach, Uruguayan Gustavo Ferrin has a reputation as a fine junior coach, taking his home country to the Under-20 World Cup, but he has now been given the opportunity to prove his worth at senior team level.

Star Player: Djalma Campos

The midfielder of the Sable Antelopes (Angola’s national football team), Djalma Campos, has said he is fit and ready for Saturday’s game with Morocco, for the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON2013) of South Africa.

Djalma Campos, who plays for the Turkish Kasimpassa team, reminded, however, that all depends on the final decision of the squad’s coach, the Uruguayan Gustavo Ferrin.

The player assured that the injury he had, which hindered him from playing in the squad’s two first training matches in South Africa, is now overcome.

“Now the batteries are charged for the first

game, w i t h Morocco, and then the other games of group A (...). We are well prepared, tactically, technically, physically and psychologically”, stressed the player.

Morocco

Morocco were fancied as dark Horses for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, but bombed out in the first round in one of the great surprises of the competition.

Then coach Eric Gerets managed to hold onto his job for the next round of qualifiers, but a 2-0 loss in Mozambique in the final round of qualification for 2013 cost his him job.

New tactician Rachid Taoussi, who last year took unfashionable Mahgreb Fes to the CAF Confederation Cup title, was named as his replacement and after some dubious refereeing the side were able to overturn their deficit and book their place in South Africa next year.

Their performances remain unconvincing though, something that is difficult to understand when you look at the make-up of their squad, exciting players with varied backgrounds – some from the Netherlands and France – who should make up an excellent unit. But instead they have looked disjointed and at times disinterested.

The Moroccans have been to 14 previous finals, their one and only continental success coming in 1976 when they triumphed in Ethiopia. In those days the tournament was decided by a final round-robin group rather than a one-off match and Morocco topped the pool from Guinea.

The country will host the next Nations Cup in 2015 and Taoussi will no doubt have that tournament in his mind as he takes his side through the 2013 event.

Star Player: Younes Belhanda

Key Morocco midfielder Younes Belhanda finds out that the gravity of a muscle pull will not threaten his participation at the African Nations Cup finals.

The Montpellier player pulled up at training in Johannesburg with an adductor injury but the team doctor said it would need 48 hours before a proper prognosis could be made.

“It’s too early now to be sure of the extend. Hopefully by Saturday morning we’ll have a realistic idea of the situation,” doctor Abdelrrazak Hifti told reporters.

The 22-year-old is seen as Morocco’s talisman for the tournament, where they play in Group A with Angola, the Cape Verde Islands and hosts South Africa.

Their opening game is against Angola at Soccer City in Johannesburg next Saturday, Jan. 19.

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ISSUE 467

Who will emerge as the 2013 winner?

SEE PAGE 22

2013 Africa Cup of Nations is go

African cup of nations 2012, Cameroon

By Agency Reporter One of the planet’s most colourful football fiestas opens in South Africa over the weekend when some of Africa’s greatest football talent plying their trade at the world’s leading clubs will be competing for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

British premier league-based African footballers, desperate to win the intense competition for their countries, will be uniting UK communities while African Voice will deliver scintillating reports in five consecutive editions.

Hosts South Africa, who also hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, will feature in the opening match against debutants Cape Verde on January 19 in Johannesburg.

Reigning champions Zambia will face Ethiopia in Mbombela on January 21. Underdogs Ethiopia achieved the rare feat of conceding five goals in a qualifier while still reaching the Africa Cup of Nations final stages. Sudan scored five in an eight-goal festival in Khartoum only to come off sec-

ond best in the scramble for a ticket to South Africa on the away-goal rule after losing the second leg 2-0 in Addis Ababa.

Supporters of the Walias Antelopes – named after an endangered species found in the mountains of northern Ethiopia, danced and sang late into the night in the streets of the capital to celebrate a return to the Cup of Nations finals. When the fearless national team walk on to the Mbombela Stadium pitch in Nelspruit on January 21 to face Zambia, they will be ending a 31-year absence from the African football showcase.

Ethiopia have been drawn with Zambia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso in Group C and the last time they played in the tournament in 1982 they also met the Chipolopolo (Copper Bullets) and the Super Eagles in Libya.

The Antelopes fell 3-0 to Nigeria and 1-0 to Zambia and just about every football supporter outside the east African state expects similar outcomes this time, leaving the Ethiopians and the Burkinabe to fight for third place. Just getting to the 2013 tournament has been a great achievement for coach

Sewnet Bishaw and his team as they eliminated favoured Benin, also on away goals, before being paired with Sudan.

Bishaw is in his second spell at the helm and has changed the weekend life style of many countrymen, who traditionally shunned a struggling national side and watched televised English Premier League and Spanish La Liga games instead. “We worked really hard to qualify and people should appreciate that. We cleared difficult hurdles in Benin and Sudan and will not make life easy for any of our opponents,” he told Ethiopian reporters. “Hard work and unity are our strengths. We succeeded because of intense training and a high level of discipline. I just hope we can learn from some of the silly goals we conceded in Khartoum.”

Bishaw inherited one of the hottest national-coach seats in Africa with 15 occupants during the past decade, including Scot Iffy Onuora, who was sacked for telling reporters he had to clear grazing cows before training sessions. There are no animals these days just a dedicated group of footballers domi-

nated by league champions Saint George and runners-up Dedebit, who supply 17 of the 23-man squad. But the star of the team, striker Saladin Said, is based in Egypt and there are two other foreign-based Antelopes heading for South Africa. Midfielder Yusuf Salah plays in Sweden and striker Fuad Ibrahim in the United States. Virtually unknown outside his country until last year, Said has a habit of scoring spectacular goals and could, if he clicks, see Ethiopia celebrating a first Cup of Nations victory since they overcame Uganda 37 years ago.

African Voice Newspaper is published by African Voice Communications. Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP. Tel: 020 7274 3933 Registered at the British Library as a newspaper. ISSN 1475-2166.Email: africanvoicenews@googlemail.com